University Departments and Self-Employment Intentions of Business Students: A Cross-Level Analysis

Abstract

This study examines how characteristics of university departments impact students’ self-employment intentions. We argue that four organizational-level factors (entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurship support programs, industry ties, and research orientation) increase such intentions. Using a dataset of 1,530 business students and 132 professors at 25 university departments, this study shows that entrepreneurship education and industry ties are related to self-employment intentions only for the males in our sample. A negative effect of the department’s research orientation was found. Our study suggests that the organizational context plays an important, but gender-specific role in shaping future entrepreneurs. Implications of our findings are discussed.